


If you love me, let me go.

by Jaimyy



Series: DEArtfest [14]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game), Detroit: Evolution
Genre: DEArtfest, Implied Offscreen Death, M/M, Zombies, monster au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:40:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25001791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jaimyy/pseuds/Jaimyy
Summary: This AU takes place a full year into a zombie apocalypse. Gavin and Nines met each other when their two groups started to work together. They are now the last two remaining and are trying to survive together.
Series: DEArtfest [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1809697
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10





	If you love me, let me go.

The sounds of glass crackled underneat Gavin's boots as they entered the building that used to be a grocery store, hoping to find atleast some kind of loot as they had been running out. Gavin kept his ears and eyes open to check for any signs of life, or death, in the building, wanting to make sure that they wouldn't be ambushed by a bunch of zombies or worse, a group of people. The last time they were ambushed it cost them their other group mates, something they were still trying to heal from.   
  
"I think it's clear, we are safe to enter," Nines stated while still keeping his voice down just in case there were beings in the dark corners of the space.   
  
Both males ventured deeper into the store, manouvering around the rubble on the ground. Gavin jumped over the counter and kneeled down to check if anything had been left for them to take. There was a lot of useless stuff but he thankfully managed to find some protein bars which would come in handy. He pushed them into his backpack before popping up from behind the desk again, immediatly being startled by Nines holding up some cardboard cut out that he had managed to find laying around, deciding to prank Gavin with it. Nines burst into laughter when he saw Gavin's startled face.  
  
"Jesus christ, Nines! This isn't the time to play around!" He hissed though there was no denying the small smile that was playing on the corner of his mouth.   
  
There was no denying that the two had grown quite close now that they were the only survivors left from their group and they only had each other left in the dark world.  
  
"I am sorry, Gav, I saw this beauty on the ground and just couldn't help myself," Nines said with a wink before tossing the cut out back onto the ground. "Found anything good under there?" he continued while leaning against the counter.  
  
"I found some protein bars so that should get through today at least.. Have you found anything other than your new boyfriend?" Gavin teased.  
  
"Jealous are you?" Nines asked while leaning closer to Gavin before finally perking up again. "Not much useful around unfortunately, I found a pocket knife which could be useful for some stuff, but not long enough to use as a weapon.. I prefer not to get close enough to a walker that I can smell their odor," Nines stated with a frown on his face.  
  
Gavin let out a sigh and climbed over the counter once more to join Nines's side, spotting a door at the other side of the room which was covered by a fallen over shelf. "Did you spot that yet?" he asked while pointing towards the door, already making his way over.  
  
"Mh, no, I actually hadn't seen that yet," Nines admitted while following after Gavin to check out the new finding, holding a little prayer in his head that there wouldn't just be a bunch of zombies in that room.  
  
"Help me out with this," Gavin said while pulling at the heavy shelf. Together the two managed to shift the shelf over onto it's side, freeing up the door. They shared a look and both readied their weapons just in case as Gavin pushed open the door. Behind it was a set of stairs, leading into what they assumed was a basement of some sorts.  
  
"Are we gonna check it out or should we leave it a mystery?" Nines asked, unsure if they should take the risk but he practically already knew the answer. They needed supplies and it had appeared that nobody had been in this basement yet, so leaving it would be a waste.  
  
"Do we really want to miss out on the basement of a grocery store? I bet it's filled with stock and based on the shelf, nobody has been in here!" Gavin said with a wide grin on his face which Nines found hard to resist. Gavin looked like a kid in a candy store. There was two of them, so how bad could it really be?  
  
Nines nodded his head in agreement as they made their way down the stairs, still trying to be as quiet and careful as possible just so they would have the upper hand. It was dark so Gavin turned on the flashlight that was attached to his backpack, looking over at the shelves with indeed appeared to have supplies on them.   
  
"Told you so!!" Gavin said proudly and made his way over towards the large shelves with canned food, picking up one of them to read the label. "Canned peaches, for the loveliest of peaches," he joked while throwing the can towards Nines who just managed to catch it, letting out a laugh. "Ha. Ha."  
  
They grabbed as much supplies as they could, always making sure to leave just a bit behind in case somebody else would find the same place they did. The world was a messed up place but they both always found it important that others had an equal chance, just like they did.  
  
While Nines was putting some of the medical supplies in his backpack, Gavin decided to explore a bit, finding another door which was guarded by a wooden plank. Curiousity got the best of him and he removed the plank, ignoring the large "DON'T ENTER" that was written on it. He opened up the door only to be met by what appeared to be five zombies, stashed away into the small room, probably some people who had been bitten and tried to hide themselves before turning.  
  
"Shit, Nines, run!" Gavin shouted out as the closest zombie had managed to grab a hold of his arm. He struggled to get the large knife off of his belt but thankfully Nines had been fast enough to grab the plank that was on the ground, smacking the dead on the head which caused it to fall back, freeing Gavin while the other four were now approaching. "Get out of here!" Nines called out as he tried to close the door on the remaining zombies.  
  
Gavin ran to grab the backpack, pulling the crowbar that they kept with them off it, shoving it between the slots that had previously held back the door before grabbing Nines by the wrist and rushing their way up the stairs again, closing the door behind them and shoving the shelf back against the door before finally catching up to their breath.   
  
"Fuck.. that was insane," Gavin huffed as he straightened his back, running a hand through the thick curls of hair, looking over at Nines. "You okay?"  
  
Nines was quiet for a moment, seemingly in thought or possibly just in shock. "Yeah everything is fine, I see you got the backpack atleast so nothing was lost," he stated with a weak smile.  
  
"Indeed, let's head back to camp and call it a night, I think I have had enough excitement for today," Gavin hummed. "And now that we have food I think we can celebrate finding a big loot with a nice meal!"  
  
Nines couldn't help but let out a small laugh. He loved how excited and proud Gavin always seemed to be after they had found any form of supplies, no matter big or small, all he cared about was the fact that they had managed to find *anything*. Maybe it was just a coping mechanism, but Nines enjoyed seeing it nonetheless.  
  
The two made their way back to their small camp, they still called it camp even if it was just the two of them now, the memories of the others stilled lingered in the place and that was why they didn't want to abandon it. Gavin set the backpack down while sitting down by the stack of wood to make a fire, putting a small pan onto the metal contraption that they had managed to build to hold the pan above the fire. Gavin searched through the bag and threw the content of one of the cans into the pan, watching the food as it warmed up.  
  
Nines watched Gavin from afar while putting away some of their loot into the cardboard boxes that they kept around just to organize and keep track of which supplies they had plenty off and which ones they would need to go on the hunt for. It wasn't any fancy way to keep track of their stuff but they had to make due with what they had. He went over to join Gavin by the fire once he had finished. The smell of the food seemed like heaven since they hadn't had any hot meal in a while.  
  
"Tonight, we eat as kings!" Gavin joked while holding the spoon in his hand up high, earning him a laugh from Nines who just shook his head in response, giving Gavin a small playful nudge before staring into the fire, causing Gavin to worry about them.  
  
"Hey are you sure you are okay? you have been awfully quiet since we left the store," Gavin asked, trying to meet Nines's gaze who just kept looking into the flames for a few seconds before finally lifting his head to meet Gavin's eyes with a seemingly fake smile plastered onto his face. "Gavin I am fine, I promise you."  
  
Empty words. That's what they were. They were nothing but empty words but Gavin had no idea why. was he just shocked about what had happened in the store? Did it maybe remind him about the ambush that they had experienced two months ago? The faces of Tina, Valerie, Chris.. They definitely still haunted him all the time so it wouldn't be too strange for Nines to be dealing with those same feelings right now. He didn't want to press any further so he decided to drop the subject. Handing over Nines's share of the dinner in silence.   
  
The rest of the night they spent in mostly silence aside from the occasional banter before calling it a night. Gavin still felt uneasy with how Nines was acting, causing him to be unable to sleep. His lack of sleep combined with the frustration eventually let to him finally breaking down, wanting to know what was happening.  
  
"So are you going to talk to me or what?!" Gavin called out as he set up straight in his makeshift bed, not even sure if Nines was awake since his back was turned to him, but the stirring of the other's figure made it clear they had very much heard him.   
  
"I told you, I am fi--" Nines began but Gavin cut him off right away. "No you are not! You are acting weird and I need you to talk to me! Are you sad? Are you angry? Did I do something wrong? Yes I was stupid enough to open up that door and let out those walkers, I am sorry okay!" Gavin said overdramatically while basically jumping out of his bed to stand in the middle of the room, pacing back and forth.  
  
"The sign said not to enter but I was still dumb enough to check and it almost cost us our loot, but we got out so why does it mat--" Gavin's ranting got interupted by Nines's words. "I got bit, okay!"  
  
The silence in the room was more deafening than any sound in the world could have ever been. The two just stared at one another, only being able to see each other through the small bit of moonlight that was shining into the room.  
  
"I got bit.. When I was holding back the door, one of them managed to bite me in my side," Nines said in a calm manner while lifting up the side of his shirt to show a blood soaked bandage which he pealed off to reveal the bite that was underneat it. "I should have told you sooner, I know, but I didn't know how," he stated with a weak smile.  
  
Gavin was quiet, the thoughts were racing through his head. He was asleep right now, he was sure of it. There was no way that Nines had been bitten, it was all just one of those silly pranks that he would pull on him all the time. It was just a sick prank.   
  
"Gav--" Nines started. "No! No, you are perfectly fine! You said so yourself!" Gavin interupted while moving over to sit on the side of Nines's bed, placing his hands onto the other's face. Nines started to smile and laid his own hand over Gavin's before pulling the other male to lay down next to him, holding the smaller figure against his own as they just laid in silence, both not being quite sure what to say after the shocking news.  
  
The sun had started to come with and the two of them had just been laying next to each other in silence, holding each other, though it had only felt like they were there for 10 minutes, time had seemingly stopped the moment Nines had revealed his secret. The silence was only interupted by Nines who started to cough which turned into a wheeze while he tried to catch his breath.   
  
"Nines? Nines! Hey try to calm down, deep breaths!" Gavin said but his panic only grew worse when he noticed that his partner was coughing up blood, setting back the realisation that Nines was in fact dying and that this wasn't just going to blow over. "Please, just hold on a little longer."  
  
Nines wiped the blood away with his blanket. His eyes had turned into a yellow-ish color and his skin was starting to fade into grey, showing the progression of the virus that had infultrated his body. "Gavin, I need you to know something."  
  
"No, you can tell me later! I don't need you to say anything right now!" Gavin's voice was breaking due to the panic and the tears that had slowly but surely started to fill up his eyes before they crawled down his cheeks. "Please don't.."  
  
"You know how this is going to end, Gavin, I am so sorry.. I just need you to know that I love you," Nines said as he took a hold of Gavin's hand, giving it a light squeeze while his free hand moved up to rest on the male's cheek, feeling the tears collecting against his hand.  
  
"You can't do this to me, Nines! You are the only one I have left, please, I need you in my life, you are the force I can't live without," Gavin was now full on sobbing, placing his forehead against Nines's as he just wanted to be as close to them as he possible could. "Don't do this to me."   
  
Nines let out a breath through his nose, moving the hand that was prevously on Gavin's cheek to the back of their neck. "Live on for me," he whispered before finally pressing his lips against the other's male, his heart filling up when Gavin accepted the kiss, kissing him back like his own life depended on it.   
  
Once they broke the kiss the two looked each other in the eyes. They had always discussed their plans when once of them would have been bitten, but never expected to have to actually do it. Gavin stood up from the bed to shove his feet into his shoes, slinging his backpack over his shoulder before returning to Nines to kiss them one more time. "I love you too."  
  
With those final words Gavin walked out of the room. He wasn't sure how he was going to continue on but he knew he had to, he had to live on for Nines's sake. He wasn't going to disappoint him.


End file.
